I believe it was John Carmack who said something like 'the difference between artists and everyone else is the resolution of their imaginations'. You have an eternally enviable skill for coming up with totally off-the-wall concepts that are nevertheless totally rationalised and functional. Do you iterate these designs or do they just pop into your head fully formed?

The GCS-1209 is super-tough, and incorporates some active defenses, but it is still vulnerable to SAMs. Most of those the vehicle is likely to face pack a 3-5 kg warhead, and a direct hit typically forces the vehicle to abandon the mission or causes catastrophic failure. A near miss usually means the vehicle will have to undergo extensive repairs on return to base, but rarely causes crashes or is outright destroyed. Losses due to pilot death have been greatly reduced in this vehicle by complete duplication of controls in each heavily armored cockpit.

Flying in the face of AAA is what this bad boy was designed to do. At distances of over 400m, it's very survivable. Numerous GCS-1209s have survived heavy fire from 19.92mm rounds (the most common size of AAA in the past), completed their missions, and returned to base for refit and repair. The cockpits themselves are designed to protect against numerous strikes from rounds of this size, and the windows can withstand up to 3 direct hits at distances of 100m!

Unfortunately, the proliferation of SAMs, including infantry-portable models, and the advent of powerful anti-aircraft lasers mean that the 1209 no longer enjoys the relative immunity it did only ten years ago. Still, in the hands of skilled pilots and a knowledgeable commander, it serves a vital function in combined-armed operations and is widely employed in the internecine battles of the galgrokst polity which manufactures it.

See the two dark structures near the top, under the wings? Those are the two cockpits. Normally one is for a pilot and the other a gunner, but each has a fully duplicated set of controls, and both pilots are trained in both roles.

You have a habit of making alien tech eerily so similar to contemporary human technology on present day Earth, despite the aliens coming from a completely separate tree of life, with a drastically different body plan and their base DNA having different chemistry to Earth DNA.

Some things will always be the same. There's basically just one possible body plan for a fish, and it's likely all fish, everywhere will follow it -- aerodynamic, with fins and tails. Likewise, think about it this way: assuming Birrin grip objects like we do (and it seems they do), can you think of a better design for a sword than what we already use on Earth?

You have a habit of making alien tech look eerily different contemporary Earth technology, despite the completely different body-shape, completely separate tree of life, and slightly different DNA of the aliens.

Nice, and interesting. I couldn't tell at first where the pilots went. In fact I'm still unsure. It's the grey pods under the upper 'wings', right? But kudos on making it look mechanically and physically plausible, yet still inhuman.

I wish I could commission you to reveal something like this for the Birrin.

I think the idea is that since the machines are engineered, they're going to be made in the shape that functions the best. And for a Coleopter, what you see here is it. No sense making it look strange if its just going to cost you more resources or even hamper your machine's ability to function.

Wow, awesome design... coleopters are an interesting concept. Love all the different weapons and attachments you designed for this craft. And I still say those aliens are really cute, ha ha. Is that thing with the folded wings a drone for reconnoitering and so on?